Sometimes, when you stop to think about it, the content of a Beastie Boys album is a little perplexing. On the one hand, it’s totally understandable that the three emcees from New York City would use the unique nature of their group as a selling point. You would expect some amount of pointing out that, yes, they are indeed three emcees, all rapping at once, all sharing the same mic, all talented at their job, all committed to partying, uninfluenced by the monies of their careers. But on the other, they’ve been rapping since the early ’80s. We already know what they’re all about.
Really, how many times can MCA, Ad-Rock Mike D say their names on a track without reaching Mike Jones-like levels of repetitiveness? It’s perhaps a testament to their lyrical skill that they avoid that plight. Still, when Mike D slips into French for a few lines, you’ve got to wish he’d use that opportunity to say something more entertaining than “Je m’appelle Michel.” You might wonder if that’s the only thing he could think to put into Google Translate. After all, it’s probably exactly what the line would have been in English anyway.
It’s ironic that the Beastie Boys titled their new release Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (Part One was delayed and will be released at a later date) because the album feels half-finished and lacks spice. Part Two opens strong – really strong – with “Make Some Noise,” a self-referencing update of past Beastie Boys singles. The track starts off with a winding, modulated synth-organ intro, which drops into a familiar old-school beat. It’s the perfect backing for the buoyant playfulness of lines like, “Leggo my eggo/ While I flex my ego/ Sip on Prosseco/ Dressed up, tuxedo.”
The group leans hard on that same electronically distorted sound throughout the album, to diminishing returns. It works well early on, especially on the tracks “Nonstop Disco Powerpack” and “Too Many Rappers.” The former uses a funky, laid-back groove with a complex percussive background. The latter is a compelling hybrid of the techno sound that’s suddenly so in vogue and a heavy, bumping bassline. That track, which features fellow New Yorker Nas, is a legitimate album highlight. Though his time on the mic is limited by the fact that he’s sharing it with three others, the guest shows his hosts a thing or to about how to navigate a beat.
But maybe Ad-Rock tips his hand from the very first line of “Make Some Noise,” by opening the album with the phrase “Yes/ Here we go again,” because the tendency toward that sound quickly grows repetitive and dull. It’s so numbing that the tracks begin to run together, even after multiple listens.
An especially egregious example comes in the song “Tadlock’s Glasses,” which is at best some sort of deconstructionist experiment and at worst an unlistenable mess of random beeps, boops and self-promotion. The whole thing is washed over to sound alternately gritty and echo-y, and the hook is so inexplicably distorted that no actual words can be discerned.
True, the Beastie Boys have always been interested in messing with the sound of their own voices, and there’s no reason to expect anything different here. The difference is, though, that on too much of Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, it seems like they just wanted to get something, anything, on the vocal track so they could have their fun in production. If it’s intentional, that’s a cynically lazy approach to music-making. But it’s probably just an indication the boys from Brooklyn are getting kind of old.
2 stars out of 5
